Barry brings his stump speech to Stamford

Published 7:00 pm, Saturday, February 9, 2008

According to Barry, he will be there to talk about nothing of any importance what so ever.

"Hopefully it will be amusing and entertaining, but nothing important will be discussed, nothing useful," said Barry.

Barry remembers Stamford fondly as he grew up in Armonk, N.Y., and would come to Stamford often with his family.

"You have to remember, this was about 140 years ago. Armonk had no movie theater, no nothing, so we would come to Stamford all the time," said Barry.

Barry started his journalistic career at a small paper in West Chester, Pa., called the Daily Local News, where he "covered a series of incredibly dull municipal meetings, some of which are still going on," said Barry.

The reason for journalism, said Barry, is because, "I graduated from college with an English major and no useful skills."

In 1983, Barry began his column at The Miami Herald, and 25 years later, it runs in more than 500 papers nationally and internationally. In 1988, Barry won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

"Many people are still trying to figure out how this happened," said Barry.

In between columns, Barry has also penned 24 non-fiction books and another eight collections of his columns -- most of these books having his name in the title somewhere with "Dave Barry Is Not Making this Up" and "Dave Barry's Guide to Guys" among some of the best sellers.

He has also stepped away from non-fiction occasionally with eight novels. Five of them, which he co-wrote with Ridley Pearson for Disney books, tell the story of Peter Pan before the children's classic begins.

"I sort of drifted into it," said Barry. "It wasn't that hard to switch gears seeing as how must of my columns are full of lies anyway. All I had to do was create some characters and give them some things to say."

And while he's still writing columns and still at The Miami Herald, they are a bit more sporadic these days as he mostly writes about things that interest him, such as the upcoming elections.

He says the elections fascinate him for many varied reasons, but the most important being that he is a candidate himself. In fact, he has been running for president in every election since the mid 1980s.

"I originally got into the race for the same reason many politicians do," said Barry. "I needed something to write about in my column."

He understands that he is a long shot, and there are many that aren't even aware he is running, but he is still optimistic.

"Hey, I'm doing better then some. At least I'm still in it unlike Bidden, Giuliani and Edwards," he pointed out.

Besides, this year, he actually has a message.

"I am for change and hope and experience, and experiencing hope, and hoping for experience and experiencing the hopefulness of change, that's what I stand for," said Barry in his only campaign advertisement.

When Barry is not busy writing his humor columns, running for ruler of the free world and writing novels for teens and adults, he likes to rock out with other writers who can't play as part of the only literary rock band, "The Rock Bottom Remainders," who this June celebrated their 15th anniversary at Webster Hall on their "Still Younger than Keith Tour."

The band, made up of literary masters who claim absolutely no musical talent -- Barry, Stephen King and Amy Tam among them -- and three people who actually know a bit about how to play.

"Mitch Albom, Greg Isles and Ridley Pearson actually know what they are doing and have some musical talent, the rest of us have no talent, but we are loud," said Barry.

The band was formed by Kathi Goldmark, who is a musician when she isn't a literary publicist and writer. As a media escort in the '90s, she spent a lot of her time driving authors to and from book signings and public appearances in the San Francisco area.

What she discovered, said Barry, is that a lot of authors had this hidden desire to be musicians. So she sent out a letter to a lot of authors asking if for one gig only, they would like to perform for the waiting public.

"The group of us crazy enough to respond became the band. Public demand for our music ended about five minutes after we started playing, but we're still here," said Barry.

So, when he comes to Stamford, he promises to leave his guitar at home, but he will be bringing a message of hope.

"I will talk about the things that are important to Stamford," he said. "I don't know what that is, but by the time I come, I will be steeped in Stamford's issues and will be bringing a message of hope and change."

Dave Barry will be at the Palace Theatre, 61 Atlantic St., Stamford, Sunday, Feb. 17 at 7 pm. Tickets prices from: $36-$41-$46. For tickets and more information call the Box Office at 325-4466 or go to www.stamfordcenterforthearts.org.